Tweet

Album Details

• Artist: Charlotte Martin
• Album: Dancing On Needles
• Label: Test-Drive Records
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: archelon on 2011-02-08

Media

What Charlotte Martin has always masterfully evoked is slightly gothic stateliness - that haunting, fluted vocal sound and the piano melodies drifting to and fro, foreground to background like winding vines. Dancing On Needles retains a tried-and-tested formula and resists the temptation to get overtly biographical, despite Martin's injury trouble over the last year.

The overall mood is shadowy and introspective but doesn't leave the listener out. Both complimentary and cutting comparisons to Tori Amos are vilified, for the most part, but 'Any Minute Now' has more Florence Welch in it than kooky New Yorker. 'Volcano' is a truly gorgeous track, tense and beautiful, with texture (both vocal and arrangement) aplenty. In the second half the energy and sparkle fade somewhat, although the brief moments of aural beauty are arresting when they arrive and stay with you after they pass.

Electronics and virtual armies of Charlotte Martins on the overdubs lend expansiveness and despite the words being difficult to understand much of the time, the important bits are pointed - "I loved you too hard" is the weary, frank admission at the end of 'Animal'. The tail-end sink is disappointing, but to cherry-pick wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. This album wasn't built too cohesively and on balance, it's enjoyable without being massively intrusive.

User Reviews and Comments

Log In or Register to Rate Albums